Newsroom

Bullying Awareness Week Nov 14-20: Children with disabilities are at greater risk, researchers say

Toronto, November 12, 2010 – Bullying may happen to any child at one time or another, but it can be a greater risk for kids with disabilities. A 2007 review of international literature says that kids with disabilities may be twice as likely to be bullied as other children. Monday, November 14th is the first day of National Bullying Awareness Week. It also marks the mid-session point for this year’s KidTalk program at Holland Bloorview, an eight-week peer support group that, among other skills, helps kids with cerebral palsy learn and share coping methods for bullying.

Barbara Fishbein-Germon, a social worker at Holland Bloorview, runs KidTalk with colleague, Nadine Sunarich. KidTalk at Holland Bloorview provides kids aged 9 to 13 with an opportunity to meet and share common challenges, celebrate differences and strengths. She says not everyone in the group has been bullied, but they have all felt left out or different in some form or another. Differences can make children more vulnerable to bullying. Dr. Debra Pepler, Professor of Psychology at York University and Senior Associate Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children says, “Children naturally distance themselves from something that is different which they cannot understand. Our role, as adults in their lives, is to ensure that children understand their peers who are different because of a disability and recognize what they can do to help and what they might be doing that makes it more difficult for these children.”

Scientists at Holland Bloorview are currently wrapping up an exploratory study of the experiences of bullying for children with disabilities. They aim to gain a better understanding of how to improve inclusion for these children. According to Sally Lindsay, Principal Investigator for this study, most existing research focuses on risk while less attention is paid to children’s experiences, especially youth with disabilities. Her research taps into the lived experience of being bullied or excluded.

Now a college student, Crystal Chin, a former client at Holland Bloorview, recalls being bullied and the accompanying feeling of helplessness. Crystal says, “The kids in the playground used to say to me: ‘Hey Crystal, want to come here and do what we’re doing? Oh wait…you can’t!’ and then laugh and run away. This was almost every day. There was nothing I could do.” Crystal says that programs like KidTalk are important for helping younger kids build self-awareness and self-esteem to better cope with being bullied.

About Bullying Awareness Week November 14-20th :

http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org/
Bullying Awareness Week is an opportunity for people at the grassroots level in communities around the world to get involved in this issue, not by waiting for "Someone else" to do something, but rather for us to work together on preventing bullying in our communities through education and awareness.

Media Contact: 
Gen Scott, Senior Communications Associate,
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
416.425.6220 x 6409 or 416.662.7776
E-mail: gscott (at) hollandbloorview (dot) ca*(see Note below)

*Note: Copy the above e-mail address(es) into the To field of your e-mail message and reconstruct the e-mail address(es) by removing the spaces and replacing the “at” and “dot” with the proper symbols (@ and .) respectively.

• 
• 

Select Text Size

• Adjust text size: Small Aa
• Adjust text size: Medium Aa
• Adjust text size: Large Aa